


Operation: Parent Trap

by PennamePersona



Series: below the skin [5]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Hades (Video Game) Canon-Typical Temporary Death, It's not exactly death in this verse but liiiiike it's close, Mention of Trans Hypnos, Multi, Non-graphic descriptions of pain and internal injury, Spoilers for Zagreus getting to the surface, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29665974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PennamePersona/pseuds/PennamePersona
Summary: Zagreus stands above his father and, for the first time, sees what it looks like when someone is collected by a Return sigil. It isn’t quite as satisfying as he wants it to be. He blames it on the exhaustion.He finishes the damn fight, and there it is, just like Nyx said: an Archway covered by a sigil he’ll never see elsewhere, formed only for the protection and concealment of Persephone. Zagreus takes a deep breath and doesn’t bother trying to fight a grin.He’s finally going to see his mother.-An overview of what Zagreus's experience on the surface look like in this 'verse. Spoilers for canon dialogue!
Relationships: Mentioned Nyx/Persephone (Hades Video Game), Mentioned Queerplatonic Dusa/Zagreus (Hades Video Game), Mentioned Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game), Persephone & Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Series: below the skin [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2163000
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	Operation: Parent Trap

**Author's Note:**

> Okay first off, I'm so sorry to everyone who's been following this 'verse and keeps getting notifs with a different name for it every time. I'm actually gonna stick with this one though, I promise!!
> 
> I might go more in-depth with some of these scenes later on, but I wanted to get this out there to establish more of the world and the characters and such. I set up the doc for this fic with all the quotes ages ago and named it 'Operation: Parent Trap' almost Immediately
> 
> Also, the quotes are pulled from the canon scenes and are meant to give a sense of Which Escape This Scene Is Filling In For

It takes him a long time to finally get to her. Getting past all the Rings is hard enough, but then he has to deal with the twisted creatures who prowl on the outer edges of the Wards. They’re warped by overexposure to the potent magic, left with only the instinct to lash out and corrode their victim’s very being. 

And then there’s his father.

Zagreus really doesn’t know what he expected. Apparently it was too much to imagine that his father would just let him go, let him  _ see his mother _ . Hasn’t he already proven enough? He’s fought more battles than he can count, stung his fingers against what feels like every inch of the Wards, and still it isn’t good enough for this man.

It’s a hard fight. Zagreus may have permanent scars from too much direct exposure to the Wards, but he doesn’t have his father’s near-encyclopedic knowledge of their inner workings. Zagreus is left trusting his instincts more than his skills, weaving through sharp lines of Wards shoving themselves out of the Rings, targeting their violent cuts directly at his core.

It’s a hard fight. But it’s one he wins.

Zagreus stands above his father and, for the first time, sees what it looks like when someone is collected by a Return sigil. It isn’t quite as satisfying as he wants it to be. He blames it on the exhaustion.

He finishes the damn fight, and there it is, just like Nyx said: an Archway covered by a sigil he’ll never see elsewhere, formed only for the protection and concealment of Persephone. Zagreus takes a deep breath and doesn’t bother trying to fight a grin.

He’s finally going to see his mother.

* * *

_ 1\. "The Styx shall take you, then. Oh, Zagreus. Farewell, my son. Won't you come back to me? When you are able, please. Come back. I shall be waiting here. However long it takes." _

She’s holding him, and even in this first embrace he has ever received from his birth mother, he isn’t allowed to stop fighting.

_ It’s not fair _ , Zagreus thinks.  _ Please, I did everything I could - this isn’t  _ **_fair_ ** _. _ _   
_ _   
_ “I’ll come back as soon as I’m able, mother.” He chokes out. He feels horrible, like he’s being pierced by the Wards from the inside. His chest has been burning since he first stepped foot in his mother’s garden, and now it’s like there’s a needle dragging along bones.

“Oh Zagreus,” His mother is crying. “I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do for you…”

Zagreus fumbles at his pocket. It hurts to move, but it also hurts to stay still, so it isn’t as though he can really win here. He pulls out his phone, lets muscle memory unlock it, and presses it into his mother’s hands. 

“It’s,  _ ah _ \- it’s open to my messages with Dusa. Tell - tell her to find Nyx.” Zagreus falls to his knees. She comes down with him, allows his head to fall against her shoulder. He’s pressed right next to her Mark, the beautiful flowering vines that look like they were etched with pomegranate juice right onto her collarbones. “Please. Tell her I - I need to see Nyx.”

And with that, he falls.

* * *

_ 2\. “I never felt I belonged...When you emerged stillborn, I fled. I fled, and came to reside here.” _

If there’s anything Zagreus can understand, it’s the feeling of not belonging. It’s not what he would’ve picked to bond with his mother about, but his options are pretty limited. It’s either this or how intimately painful it is that they aren’t allowed to be near each other for long before the Wards start painfully tugging him back. 

“We should really find something nice to talk about, next time,” Zagreus coughs, trying to make it a laugh. “No need to make the experience of watching your son basically die be so depressing.”

His mother smiles at him, and even if it’s shaky, it’s there. “Oh dear, you got my sense of humor. I can’t imagine your father knew what to do with that.”

His chest feels on fire. He is in absolute agony.

But when he falls from his sigil in the House, he’s still laughing.

* * *

_ 3\. “Would I have come back...to see my only child? Had I but known you lived...I would have gladly gone through hell again to see you, Zagreus. Of course I would have.” _

“Looks like we’re on the same page with that at least,” Zagreus says. The burning isn’t so bad just yet, but he can tell it’s getting close to the end of his time. “I go through hell every time I come here.”

The look she gives him is sad, but he can tell she’s trying not to let it show too much. He’s not sure if he’d rather she were just open about how she’s feeling, but he appreciates that she’s at least not making his pain all about herself.

“Tell me about Nyx’s children, hm? You must know them, surely.” She sits down on the grass and gestures for him to join her. It’s as good an excuse as any for him to stop trying to stand on already trembling legs.

Zagreus leans against her side and loves the feeling of his mother’s arm around him. “Oh yes, you could say I’m  _ very _ well acquainted with them. Hypnos and I are good friends. He greets me every time I get back to the House, which usually makes the whole ‘painfully getting pulled back by uncaring Wards’ business a bit more lighthearted. Thanatos and I are very, very close. We’re together, actually. Romantically speaking, that is.”

His mother hums, strokes a hand through his hair. “Well, that sounds lovely. They were so very young when I left...I remember Thanatos, but I don’t know the name Hypnos?”

He supposes she wouldn’t. “Yeah, he’s Than’s twin. You probably knew him by, um, a different name.”

“Ah,” She sighs. “That’s very good to know. I would’ve hated to misgender or deadname him. Thank you for telling me.”

Zagreus tries to reply, but it’s a lost cause. His mother puts a hand on his cheek and gives him that same sad smile he keeps seeing. It’s almost as painful as the burning in his chest.

“I’ll see you again, my son.” His mother kisses the top of his head, and he falls.

* * *

_ 4\. “What if father thinks he’s protecting you?” “Protecting me? Why Zagreus, what do you mean by that? As you can see, I can fend for myself.” _

Zagreus doesn’t say it, but something strikes him a bit wrong about that. She isn’t fending entirely for herself. Without Nyx, she wouldn’t be concealed like she is. She must know that, right?

That isn’t the point, though, so he just shakes his head. “I know mother, but... _ ah _ , damn. Awful timing.”

His mother goes to her knees along with him, hand already out for his phone. “Don’t push yourself, Zagreus. Here, I’ll let them know to expect you.”

“Thank...you…” Zagreus chokes out. His mind is racing with possibilities, theories about what his father has been keeping to his chest and why. He can’t make sense of any of it, not quite, too full of pain and burning and -

Falling.

* * *

_ 5\. “So Nyx and Hades are against each other, then. And Olympus is helping you...but they don’t know I’m here, as far as you’re aware?” _

Zagreus cannot pretend he isn’t getting pretty damn tired of family politics by this point. 

“As far as I know, the only people who know your location are Nyx, father, and myself.” He pauses. “Actually, I don’t know for sure that anyone knows the  _ exact _ location besides Nyx. Her Wards are impossible to see through unless she allows it.”

The wistful look on his mother’s face is impossible to miss. “She always was so skilled with her magic…”

Well. Between his mother’s wistfulness and Nyx’s barely hidden bittersweet longing, a fair few things slot into place. Nice to know he may have gotten more from his mother than his sense of humor and one of her eyes.

“Have I told you about my relationship with Dusa?” He asks. His mother shakes her head, looking a bit surprised.

“No,” She says. “I’ve gathered that you’re close, given that she’s the one I’m sending messages to when the Wards pull you back.”

Zagreus manages a grin, though the knives at his ribs try to make it a grimace. “Definitely close, yeah. She’s my partner, though not quite like Thanatos is. We aren’t romantic or sexual, but we’re definitely intimate.”

Explaining his queerplatonic partner to his mother is a very nice distraction from the sharp pain spiking through every part of himself. He falls in the middle of describing how Dusa’s nose wrinkles when she laughs.

* * *

_ 6\. “I can see how your father, shrewd but single-minded as he was, might have followed such a line of reasoning as that. Oh Zagreus...what have I done?” _

Zagreus thinks she’s being rather kind with her descriptions of his father, but that’s neither here nor there at the moment. He wants to say more, wants to explain and ask a thousand questions, but his throat feels suffocated by the fire in his ribcage.

“I don’t,” He coughs, and his mouth tastes like iron. “I don’t know. But I’ll be back, I promise. We’ll figure it out together, o-okay?”

The last thing he sees clearly is her face, mouth pursed, brow drawn tight. He falls, and she does not return his promise.

* * *

_ 7\. “Zagreus...it’s wonderful to see you, but...I need to ask something of you. That you not visit me again, here in this place. Both for your safety, and for mine.” _

Maybe it was foolish of him to get caught up in talking with her. He’s had over two decades without her, and it’s so easy to lose track of the too few moments they have together.

She drops the bomb of a secondary abandonment after he’s already fallen to one knee. He suspects she timed it like this on purpose, and for a moment, the anger and resentment Zagreus has only ever aimed at his father is redirected. His mother looks at him with something like pity in her eyes, and he can’t stand that! How could she - 

She reaches down and pulls out his phone, opens it and types out a message like she has before. After she replaces it, she runs a hand through his hair.

“I love you, my son. Live well.”

And he falls.

* * *

_ 8\. “...The truth is that I like it here, Zagreus. I have done well for myself on my own. And your father, he has his domain to look after. The feelings he once had for me...feelings we shared...they fade, with time. You’ll understand, someday.” _

“No,” Zagreus says, fiercely. “I won’t understand. Unlike the two of you, I’m not going to give up on the people I love just because it’s hard. You didn’t just leave father, though that would be bad enough. You left Nyx, you let her cut open her Wards just to keep you safe, and then you  _ left _ . I want to know you mother, I want to learn to love you like I love Nyx. And that means I’m not going to let you give up all over again.”

His mother stares at him in shock, her mouth hanging open. Honestly, Zagreus is just glad he managed to say all of that without stumbling. He’s getting used to the horrible sensation of Wards carving themselves through him from within. Not really a goal he ever had, but it’s useful for dramatic monologues, so there’s that.

When he goes down to one knee, she reaches out a hand, but he doesn’t give her his phone this time. He looks her in the eye, makes  _ sure _ she sees him, sees the truth.

“I’ll - ” He coughs. The burning in his chest is almost unbearable. “I’ll be back, mother.”

And he falls.

* * *

_ 9\. “I just don’t know, my son….I cannot imagine I would be very welcome there, after all this time.” _

“So make your space,” Zagreus says. “Come back, talk to father and Nyx. Even if you aren’t welcome immediately, I know we can all make things work. We just have to try!”

His mother still looks doubtful, which is neck and neck with “sad smile” on the list of expressions he’s seen most often from her. Between her and father and Nyx, no one wants to just _talk_ _openly_ about their feelings! Zagreus wants to scream in frustration, which is typically an instinct he holds back. He has the thought that he’s probably earned this outlet, but then he’s screaming in pain, instead.

Any other thoughts he might have had are overtaken by a sudden understanding of what the phrase “exquisite pain” means. He doesn’t have the conscious awareness to even notice the fall, this time.

* * *

_10._

Making their way effortlessly through the Wards with Charon as their guide is a surreal experience, to say the least. Zagreus can’t quite focus on how it is they’re gliding through, too caught up in his mother choosing to return with him. He was so afraid she wouldn’t, that she’d tell him to go again and this time it would stick.

But she’s here. She’s here, she’s returning his hopeful smile, and he’s so indescribably  _ happy _ .

Then they pass through into the last Ring, and his chest starts burning again, which is completely unfair. He’s in the Wards this time! He shouldn’t be having any trouble at all!

He can’t help the gasp of pain as his hand flies to his chest.

“Zagreus?” His mother looks almost panicked. “What’s happening? Shouldn’t you be safe this close to the House?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Zagreus groans. He tugs at his shirt and figures it’s worth trying to see if it’s actually a wound this time. “It isn’t quite as bad this time, but I don’t...understand…”

His voice trails off as he stares down at the colors on his chest. He barely registers the sudden halt to their movement, signaling their arrival back at the House.

“Is that...a Mark?”

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, comments and kudos absolutely rule and are appreciated so so so so much!! Particularly if you like this 'verse and want to see more of it!
> 
> Again, fair odds I'll write out some of these scenes in more detail in the future as separate fics. I've really wanted to get the broad concepts touched on here out in the open, so I decided it was better to get this posted now than wait on a more detailed fic that might never actually happen.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
